Internet Browsing Behaviour and its Influence on Cognitive Processing Among Indian College Students

Over the past two decades, the internet has become an integral part of daily life, affecting multiple domains ranging from commerce to education. However, internet-based webpages are also filled with distractors—both internal distractors (hyperlinks) and external distractors (advertisements) which introduce extraneous cognitive load. Prior research has highlighted the potential impact of such distractors on cognitive processing and reading patterns among users. The current study explores if and how the presence of internal and/or external distractors influences reading patterns and cognitive processing—an umbrella term encapsulating visual attention, inhibitory control, and memory—among Indian college students. Using a 2x2 mixed factorial eye-tracking based design, participants were randomly divided into one of four groups with varying types and levels of distractors present. Bayesian analyses revealed that the type and presence of distractors do not meaningfully predict performance on measures of cognitive processing. However, it was observed that participants across groups defaulted to the F-pattern of reading. This pattern was most prominent in the group that saw the most distractors, making the stimuli a close representation of a typical webpage. The findings suggest that previous conclusions drawn regarding the distraction potential of the internet-based distractors may not be applicable Gen-Z Indian college students. This may be accounted for by factoring in their nativity to, and habitual use of the internet along with a heavy reliance of the F-pattern when viewing webpages.